Gavin McKenna just gave Jeff Blashill a summer clip he won't want replayed.
The play making the rounds online is simple and ugly. McKenna loses the puck clean on a power-play drill, and the guy taking it from him is being identified online as RJ Celebrini, Macklin Celebrini's 13-year-old brother.
That's why this blew up so fast. McKenna isn't some fringe prospect trying to hang on at camp. He's a marquee name, and when a clip like that hits social media, fans are going to read a lot into it.
Fair or not, this is a bad look.
The part that stands out is the lack of resistance on McKenna's side. It doesn't look like he's coasting through contact, and it doesn't look like a token rep where everyone is easing off the gas either.
RJ closes, gets his stick in, and the puck is gone before McKenna can recover his hands. The sequence is short, but the reaction online tells you exactly how it landed.
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Why the clip sticks
Summer skates can fool people. One rep in an open drill doesn't define a prospect, and it definitely doesn't decide what kind of player McKenna will be once camp opens.
But this one sticks because the visual is so clean. McKenna is on the power play, he has space, and he still gets picked without much pushback. That's the part fans won't let go.
For Blashill and the Blackhawks, the bigger issue isn't one lost puck in July. It's the conversation that follows when a high-end young forward gets exposed in a clip that looks this sharp and this avoidable.
Top players get judged differently. That comes with the draft slot, the hype, the skill package, and the spotlight. McKenna is already in that lane, so every loose touch is going to get replayed harder than it should.
There's also a maturity angle here. If a younger kid can get inside your hands on a drill rep, people are going to question your strength, your detail, and how dialed in you were on the sequence.
That may be harsh, but that's how hockey people watch clips like this. They look at puck protection, body position, and whether a player reacts once the pressure arrives.
McKenna will have plenty of time to shut this down once real hockey starts. Until then, this rep is out there, and it's not doing him any favors.
Did this Gavin McKenna clip hurt his image?
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